Free Republic

'There is no honour in seeing Arabs rush towards normalisation during its presidency,' Maliki said [File: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters] Palestine was meant to chair Arab League meetings for next six months, but FM Riyad al-Maliki has declined the position. Palestine has quit its current chairmanship of Arab League meetings, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Tuesday, condemning as dishonourable any Arab agreement to establish formal ties with Israel. Palestinians see the deals that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed with Israel in Washington a week ago as a betrayal of their cause and a blow to their quest for...

Palestinian Authority Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said on Thursday that the PA is considering taking “significant steps” in response to Israel’s decision to accelerate the construction of 2,000 homes in east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Abu Rudeineh, who was interviewed on BBC Radio, said the PA will soon “change the Middle East” but would not provide additional details. Meanwhile, the PA’s representative in the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, has asked the UN Security Council to take action against Israel, saying the Israeli government in Jerusalem is “illegally stealing” the tax money it is supposed to transfer to the PA. Mansour...